US gasoline inventories, consumption fall

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Both consumption and inventories of US gasoline fell for the week ended 14 September, a government agency said on Wednesday.

US finished motor gasoline consumption dropped by 63,000 bbl/day to a rate of 8.632m bbl/day, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Year on year, gasoline consumption is 2.5% lower.

For the week ended 14 September, gasoline inventories fell by 1.4m bbl to 196.3m bbl. Analysts had predicted that gasoline inventories would go up by 1.6m bbl.

Furthermore, US gasoline production rose by 231,000 bbl/day to 8.742m bbl/day, the EIA said.

The US Gulf coast region mostly contributed to the rise, as many of its refineries were coming back on line after Hurricane Isaac. US Gulf gasoline production was at 1.914m bbl/day, up from the previous week, which was at 1.765m bbl/day.

Accordingly, US refinery utilisation increased by 4.2 percentage points to a rate of 88.9% for the week ended 14 September.

Finished gasoline refers to the stage in the supply chain where it has reached primary sources, such as blenders and terminals, before delivery to the retail stations.